One of the initial priorities for my ‘Evolving the Ecosystem’ project was to learn about some of the key ideas and concepts that underpin the study of cancer as an ecosystem. I also want to get to grips with how they might be applied to the work of the teams at the LCH. So my first series of meetings at the LCH have been primarily focused on researchers at the Institute of Cancer Resarch (ICR) who have generously explained the thinking behind their research, sharing ideas and research papers and painstakingly explaining complex biology to a non biologist. First off, I am very grateful to all who met with me from the Biology of Childhood Leukaemia team and from the Centre for Evolution and Cancer teams and who spent time with me on my visits in late September and early October. I am not planning to record the content of each of the conversations here, just to say that they were incredibly illuminating and introduced me to a wealth of ideas around cancer ecosystems.

From these discussions I have started to draw out some of the concepts that I think may be useful going forward to inform my artwork. Scattered through future posts I will be sharing selections of the concepts and metaphors I am encountering, with my interpretation of their meaning in the context of cancer, in the context of organisation, or better still, both. I would emphasise here, though, that all the interpretations I am sharing are mine. They may be drawn from conversations with researchers and others but if they are full of errors or misunderstandings, those are entirely my own responsibility.